The Breaking Point (1961 film)

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

The Breaking Point (1961 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Breaking Point
U.S. release poster
Directed by	Lance Comfort
Written by	Peter Lambert (screenplay) Laurence Meynell (novel)
Produced by	Peter Lambert
Starring	Peter Reynolds Dermot Walsh Joanna Dunham Lisa Gastoni
Cinematography	Frank Drake Basil Emmott
Edited by	Peter Pitt
Music by	Albert Elms
Production company	Butcher's Film Service
Distributed by	Butcher's Film Service
Release date	20 February 1961 (1961-02-20)
Running time	59 minutes
Country	England
Language	English

The Breaking Point (also known as The Great Armored Car Swindle for the US release) is a 1961 second feature^[1] British crime film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Peter Reynolds, Dermot Walsh, Joanna Dunham and Lisa Gastoni.^[2] The screenplay was by Peter Lambert based on the 1957 novel by Laurence Meynell.

It was one of several British crime films starring Reynolds.^[3]

Plot

[edit]

Eric Winlatter works at a currency printing company. When the company wins a contract to print banknotes for the Middle East state of Lavadore, he is persuaded to help revolutionaries hijack the currency shipment. Cherry, his neglected wife, becomes suspicious and tells journalist Robert Wade. Eric is killed when he falls out of the villains' escape plane.

Cast

[edit]

Peter Reynolds as Eric Winlatter
Dermot Walsh as Robert Wade
Joanna Dunham as Cherry Winlatter
Lisa Gastoni as Eva
Jack Allen as Ernest Winlatter
Brian Cobby as Peter de Savory
Arnold Diamond as Telling
Eric Corrie as Wilson
Desmond Cullum-Jones as Evans
Geoffrey Denton as debt collector
Richard Golding as Mintos
John G. Heller as Mel
Gertan Klauber as Lofty
John Lawrence as security officer
Mercia Mansfield as Ernest's secretary
Charles Russell as Cappel

Critical reception

[edit]

Variety said the film's greatest strength was its brevity."^[4]

Kine Weekly said "Taut crime melodrama, unfolded against a convincing London backdrop."^[5]

Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A waste of one of Laurence Meynell's better novels, this trimmed to the bone thriller has little to offer apart from a well-staged gambling party sequence, a speedy climax and some desultory rough-and-tumble."^[6]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "If stars were awarded for plot contrivance, this low-budget thriller would be well into double figures. There's a banknote printer with a gambling debt, revolutionaries with a counterfeiting plan, an armed robbery, a bomb, a touch of adultery and a speeding plane finale. Not one character rings true nor is one fragment of the storyline credible."^[7]

References

[edit]

^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
^ "The Breaking Point". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
^ Vagg, Stephen (11 November 2024). "Peter Reynolds: Forgotten Cad". Filmink. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
^ "The Great Armoured Car Swindle". Variety. 8 April 1964. p. 6.
^ "The Breaking Point". Kine Weekly. 525 (2784): 10. 9 February 1961 – via ProQuest.
^ "The Breaking Point". Monthly Film Bulletin. 28 (324): 35. 1961 – via ProQuest.
^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 128. ISBN 9780992936440.

External links

[edit]

The Breaking Point at IMDb

Films directed by Lance Comfort

Penn of Pennsylvania (1941)
Hatter's Castle (1942)
Those Kids from Town (1942)
Squadron Leader X (1943)
Escape to Danger (1943)
When We Are Married (1943)
Old Mother Riley Detective (1943)
Hotel Reserve (1944)
Great Day (1945)
Bedelia (1946)
Temptation Harbour (1947)
Daughter of Darkness (1948)
Silent Dust (1949)
Portrait of Clare (1950)
The Girl on the Pier (1953)
Bang! You're Dead (1954)
Eight O'Clock Walk (1954)
The Man in the Road (1956)
Face in the Night (1957)
Man from Tangier (1957)
At the Stroke of Nine (1957)
The Ugly Duckling (1959)
Make Mine a Million (1959)
The Breaking Point (1961)
Rag Doll (1961)
Pit of Darkness (1961)
Touch of Death (1961)
The Painted Smile (1962)
The Break (1963)
Blind Corner (1963)
Live It Up! (1963)
Tomorrow at Ten (1963)
Be My Guest (1965)
Devils of Darkness (1965)

This article related to a British film of the 1960s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This 1960s crime film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Breaking_Point_(1961_film)&oldid=1256705784"

Categories:

Hidden categories: